California EMS Information System (CEMSIS)

The California Emergency Medical Services Information System (CEMSIS) is a demonstration project for improving EMS data across California. CEMSIS offers a secure, centralized data system for collecting data about individual emergency medical service requests, patients treated at hospitals, and EMS provider organizations. CEMSIS uses the universal standard for how patient care information resulting from an emergency 9-1-1 call for assistance is collected called the National Emergency Medical Services Information System (NEMSIS). Health and Safety Code, Section 1797.227 requires the most current version of NEMSIS to be used to collect EMS data.

What can CEMSIS do today?

CEMSIS data is used to study variations in local data quality and local capacity for health information exchange. When fully operational with 100% LEMSA and local participation, it is estimated that CEMSIS will catalogue over 5 million EMS events per year. EMSA will use the data to develop and coordinate high quality emergency medical care in California through activities such as:

Healthcare quality programs which monitor patient care outcomes

Agency collaboration across jurisdictional boundaries

Local, regional, and state-level public health surveillance

Increased public awareness of emergency medical services in California

NEMSIS

NEMSIS

To improve local data quality and prepare California EMS for health information exchange, EMSA and local agencies adopted new data standards known as NEMSIS Version 3.

The NEMSIS Version 3.4 data standards provide a set of tools that EMS professionals can use to integrate EMS patient care data with electronic medical records at hospitals. This will allow EMS providers, hospitals, and government agencies to exchange patient information securely and in real time – leading to better patient outcomes and a smarter system of care

The current version of NEMSIS is version 3.4 effective January 1, 2017.

CEMSIS Participation

There are a total of 33 LEMSAs within the State of California. Of those 33 LEMSAs, 32 voluntarily submit data into CEMSIS. There are two different statuses:

LEMSAs who participate and submit some form of v3.4 data into CEMSIS, and

LEMSAs who are currently in the testing stage to submit v3.4 data into CEMSIS